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on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
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Issue of 2012‒02‒27
eight papers chosen by Laura Stefanescu European Research Centre of Managerial Studies in Business Administration |
| By: | Margarida Chagas Lopes |
| Abstract: | One of the leading mismatches brought about by globalization has to do with the severe opposition between the national frameworks in which qualifications and skills are being developed and the wider international contexts in which they are increasingly utilized and reproduced. This gulf becomes almost impossible to overcome and imposes a growing inequality in the access to knowledge in the global economy as the prevalent forms of economic regulation are rendered obsolete. The limitations displayed by national systems of education and training interact with the growing insufficiencies in the performance of labor market and innovation hetero regulators. As a result, increasing flows of excluded workers have been paving the ways between the new global development centers and the emerging new peripheries. |
| Keywords: | Education and economic development, quality of education, new North-South divide, Sub-saharan Africa |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:soc:wpaper:wp102011&r=knm |
| By: | Margarida Chagas Lopes |
| Abstract: | Labor market regulation and its relations with education and training have been performing an historical trajectory which closely intertwined with developments in economic thought. Under the form of human capital theories, neo-classical economics set the bridge between labor market equilibrium and education outputs for decades. The functionalist approach behind that lasting relationship was to be challenged by economic crises and globalization, which imposed the unquestionable supremacy of the demand for skilled work. Likewise, even if only that more strict perspective of education would prevail, which fortunately is not the case, time and hazard came to undertake its denigration on the grounds of a severe loss of regulatory efficiency as globalization was setting up.In this paper we shed light on the increasing role which innovation is called to perform in labor market hetero regulation in the present phase of globalization. Depending on the institutional design throughout which R&D become embedded in nowadays societies, evidence clearly reveals how innovation strategies are to be found so asymmetrically implemented between developed and developing countries, thereby leading to the enlarging divide between the “new North” and “new South” globalization off springs. |
| Keywords: | labor market regulation, education and training, innovation, knowledge, North-South divide, Portugal |
| JEL: | I24 J24 |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:soc:wpaper:wp082011&r=knm |
| By: | Federica Bicchi |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on the role of information and knowledge in the EU foreign policy system. In particular, it examines the case of HoMs reports, which are drafted by Heads of Mission (HoMs) in non-EU countries about the situation on the ground and what the EU could/should do about it. They include both information, such as data, and more complex cognitive schemata defining problems and their potential solutions, here referred to in general terms as knowledge. The paper argues that information and knowledge included in HoMs reports can be both useful to member states and European in nature. It can be useful because the empirical evidence surveyed shows that the majority of HoMs reports cover areas in which few member states have a diplomatic representation. Member states might double-check the information summarized in the reports, but the knowledge included is considered useful. Moreover, the drafting process of a HoMs report does not necessarily reflect a common minimum (or maximum) denominator, but can also emerge from genuine cooperation and reflect a European approach, as shown in the case of the HoMs report on East Jerusalem. As the European External Action Service (EEAS) multiplies its capacity for information gathering and knowledge construction, the issue of whose information and knowledge informs policy proposals is likely to become even more relevant in the future. |
| Keywords: | CFSP/ESDP; democracy; knowledge |
| Date: | 2011–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erp:reconx:p0116&r=knm |
| By: | d'Artis Kancs; Pavel Ciaian |
| Abstract: | Recently, the EU Council adopted a new labour migration policy instrument - the EU Blue Cards (BC) - for attracting the highly skilled workers to the EU. The present paper examines the potential impacts, which BC may cause on less developed sending countries (LDC). Our results suggest that the EU BC will reduce human capital in LDC. In addition, BC will also have a negative impact on knowledge capital. These findings suggest that without appropriate policy responses, BC makes developing country growth prospects rather bleak than blue. Therefore, we propose and analyse alternative migration policy instruments for LDC. We find that policies implemented on the demand side of the skilled labour market are the most efficient. In contrast, policies that address the supply side of the skilled labour market are the least efficient, though they might be less costly to implement. |
| Keywords: | Knowledge capital, human capital, high-skill migration, innovative capital, economic growth. |
| JEL: | F02 F22 J24 J61 O15 |
| Date: | 2011–12–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eei:rpaper:eeri_rp_2011_21&r=knm |
| By: | You-Na Lee; John P. Walsh |
| Abstract: | It is widely thought that intra-firm integration has a positive effect on organizational performance, especially in environments characterized by complex and uncertain information. However, counter arguments suggest that integration may limit flexibility and thereby reduce performance in the face of uncertainty. Research and development activities of a firm are especially likely to face complex and uncertain information environments. Following prior work in contingency theory, this paper analyzes the effects of intra-organizational integration on manufacturing firms’ innovative performance. Based on a survey of R&D units in US manufacturing firms and patent data from the NBER patent database, we examine the relation between mechanisms for linking R&D to other units of the firm and the relative innovativeness of the firm. Furthermore, we argue that the impact of integration may vary by the importance of secrecy in protecting firms’ innovation advantages. We find that intra-firm integration is associated with higher self-reported innovativeness and more patents. We also find some evidence that this effect is moderated by the appropriability regime the firm faces, with the benefits of cross-functional integration being weaker in industries where secrecy is especially important. These results both support and develop the contingency model of organizational performance. |
| Keywords: | Innovation; Organizations; Contingency theory; |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:icr:wpicer:20-2011&r=knm |
| By: | William Addessi; Enrico Saltari; Riccardo Tilli |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of R&D and innovation on the use of external numerical flexibility (ENF). R&D and innovation imply both a higher average and a higher volatile productivity. We investigate this ambiguous effect on the firm preference for using ENF in two steps. First, we use a simple model to show that a first-order stochastic dominance shift in the distribution function increases the probability of hiring permanent workers, while a second-order shift has ambiguous effects. Next, using a dataset based on a survey of Italian manufacturing firms, we run logit regressions to estimate the effect of R&D and innovation on the probability of employing a fixed-term or a TWA worker, finding a positive and always significant effect. We also consider internal and external R&D and different types of innovation. Results show that the former has a positive effect while the latter depends on the type of innovation. |
| Keywords: | Flexible employment, Labor contracts, Research and Development, Innovation. |
| JEL: | J41 O33 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sap:wpaper:wp150&r=knm |
| By: | Silvia Terzi; Attilio Trezzini; Luca Moroni |
| Abstract: | The paper studies the relations between types of institutions on different components of human development. A role of aggregate demand in determining the material components of human development is assumed. We thus divide institutions into those that create demand and those that are determined by the whole process of development. Similarly we divide human development in its three traditional components (economic development, health, knowledge). Both human development and institutions are assumed as multidimensional constructs; all the main components of these constructs are defined as latent variables, and the relations between them as structural relations. A Partial Least Squares (PLS) path model is developed: it is the aggregation (and simultaneous estimation) of an outer model relating observed or manifest variables to their own latent variable and of a structural model (inner model) relating some endogenous latent variable to other latent variables. From the goodness of fit point of view, our results seem to validate our theoretical assumptions. |
| Keywords: | Structural Equations Models, Institutions, Human Development |
| JEL: | O43 C40 O15 |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rtr:wpaper:0145&r=knm |
| By: | Ernest Miguélez (Economics and Statistics Division, World Intellectual Property Organization and Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona); Rorina Moreno (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | The aim of the present paper is to identify the determinants of the geographical mobility of skilled individuals, such as inventors, across European regions. Their mobility contributes to the geographical diffusion of knowledge and reshapes the geography of talent. We test whether geography, amenities, job opportunities and social proximity between inventors’ communities, and the so-called National System of Innovation, drive in- and out-flows of inventors between pairs of regions. We use a control function approach to address the endogenous nature of social proximity, and zero-inflated negative binomial models to accommodate our estimations to the count nature of the dependent variable and the high number of zeros it contains. Our results highlight the importance of physical proximity in driving the mobility patterns of inventors. However, job opportunities, social and institutional relations, and technological and cultural proximity also play key roles in mediating this phenomenon. |
| Keywords: | inventors’ mobility, gravity model, amenities, job opportunities, social and institutional proximities, zero-inflated negative binomial, European regions. JEL classification: C8, J61, O31, O33, R0 |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ira:wpaper:201204&r=knm |